All Blacks and Chiefs star Richard Kahui cut a far more upbeat figure at Waikato Stadium on Friday night than he had just two days earlier.

The reason was positive news from Kahui's orthopaedic specialist, Craig Ball, in Auckland earlier in the day that reopened the possibility of the player returning to Super Rugby action for the Chiefs this season following his shoulder dislocation suffered two weeks ago in Bris-bane.

There had been the possibility, depending on the amount of damage done to the shoulder joint by the dislocation, of further surgery that would have sidelined Kahui for up to a year like previous shoulder injuries have required.

"He said it feels far more stable than what he expected and said he was pleasantly surprised, so that's a good thing coming from him. He's always pretty honest," Kahui said of the specialist. Ball has treated and operated on Kahui for all his previous serious shoulder injuries.

"He knows me better than anybody – genuinely knows me inside and out – so he's got a pretty good handle on where I'm at."

Kahui said he was still targeting the home match against the Crusaders in the second last week of the round-robin on July 6 for his return to the playing field.